What consequences does the new pricing guidelines have for your business?

Shortly before Christmas, the European Commission adopted new guidelines for marketing prices. The guidelines occur on 28 May 2022. According to the Danish Chamber of Commerce, the most significant change in the rules is that the standard price period is shortened from 42 days to 30 days for many goods. Moreover, even short-term campaigns will interrupt the standard price period.

January 17, 2022

By Jan Johannes Kyhnæb

Retail

What changes?

A standard price period lasts six weeks (or 42 days) within the current rules. A standard price period of six weeks is an indication that an item must have been for sale for six weeks before you can announce savings on the item. If the item's price has varied during these six weeks, the lowest price will be the one when promoting a discount. For example, if you want to promote a discount of 20 percent, it must be 20 percent off the item's lowest price within six weeks.

It will be possible to run individual and short-term campaigns (up to three days in duration) during the six weeks. However, the promotions must include all products, parts of your range, or specific product categories to comply with the rules. Therefore, it will not be possible to run offers on individual products during the standard price period.

Shortened deadline on items with short close expiration date

Items with a short expiration date - e.g., meat, fish, dairy products, etc. will in the future have a reference period of 14 days. This means that if, for example, you want to run an offer on a covered dairy product, then the price must have been higher for a minimum of 14 days before you can call it an offer. However, it is far from all groceries where the new and shorter standard price period will apply. It will only be items that have a very short shelf life.

Promotional terms

According to Dansk Erhverv, promotional terms such as "sale price," "special offer," and "Black Friday offer" will in the future be covered by new rules, which means that in future, you must display the product's previous price in connection with such an offer. This applies to the lowest price in the last 30 days.

What about loyalty programs?

According to the European Commission, the new rules will not cover loyalty programs. They must "simply" live up to the deception provisions that apply in the Marketing Act.

You can read the press release from the Danish Chamber of Commerce here and get an insight into the further course of revision of the Consumer Ombudsman's current guidelines on price marketing based on the new rules.

How can we help?

To live up to the new EU rules adapted on 28 May 2022, you must have an accurate overview of your prices at least 30 days prior to your planned sale campaign. With a complete integration between a Business Central ERP system, your POS system, and/or e-Commerce solution, you get a comprehensive overview of your previous prices and thus have the best conditions to follow the new EU rules for price marketing. At Fiftytwo, we have highly competent Business Central consultants who can help ensure that you always have the right help available and get the most value out of your ERP system.

Are you interested in hearing more about how we can help you? Then contact us here.